HowTo-Outlook

When Office 2010 launched, Microsoft made the questionable decision to only include Business Contact Manager (BCM) with the Volume License suites of Office 2010 (Standard and Professional Plus). This decision left out all the people who are using BCM in a standalone environment or in an environment which needs less than 5 Office 2010 licenses.

Microsoft has reconsidered this decision and has now made BCM 2010 available as a free add-in. There is a catch though; you must already have a license of a qualifying previous version (2003 or 2007) to be entitled to get BCM for Outlook 2010.

This means that if you want to get started with BCM 2010 but do not own a previous license for it, you’ll still need to obtain a Volume License version of the Office 2010 suite to be able to use it legally. However, the BCM download site accepts any key of an Office 2010 suite that includes Outlook and no check is made for a previous version.

So, considering the above fact that there is no technical limitation of using BCM 2010 with any version of Outlook 2010, let’s hope that Microsoft will reconsider again and adjust the License Terms to make BCM 2010 a truly free add-in for all Outlook 2010 versions!

Download: Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2010

With the Microsoft Junk E-mail Reporting Add-in you can submit junk e-mail messages to Microsoft for further analysis. This will help Microsoft to further improve the Junk E-mail filter in future updates.

Download: Microsoft Junk E-mail Reporting Add-in

The Social Connector for Outlook 2010 got a stability update.

Download: Update for Outlook 2010 Social Connector (KB2289116), 32-Bit Edition
Download: Update for Outlook 2010 Social Connector (KB2289116), 64-bit Edition
View: Description of the Outlook Social Connector update: September 14, 2010

Microsoft has released security bulletin MS10-64 which applies to a security vulnerability in Outlook 2002/XP, 2003, 2007 and 2010. Previous version of Outlook are likely to be vulnerable as well, but no update will be released for these versions.

The security vulnerability exists when you have an Exchange account configured with the Cached Exchange Mode option turned off.

KB2315011: MS10-064: Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Outlook could allow remote code execution

The easiest way to get these updates and to install them is via Microsoft Update.
Note that if you are a home user and need support with these security updates, you’re entitled to no-charge support via your local Microsoft subsidiary.

New Junk E-mail Filter definitions have been made available for Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010.

Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB2291595)
Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Junk Email Filter (KB2291599)
Download: Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 Junk Email Filter (KB982726)

If you have Windows Update configured to also update other Microsoft applications, then this update will also also be offered via Windows Update or has already been updated automatically for you.

The Outlook Hotmail Connector got updated to version 14.1

Checking the about box will reveal the version number 14.0.5117.5000. This is the same version that is shipped with the BETA version of the Windows Live Essentials 2011 Suite.

Download: Outlook Hotmail Connector 32-bit
Download: Outlook Hotmail Connector 64-bit

Note: The 64-bit version of the Outlook Hotmail Connector is only needed when you use a 64-bit version of Outlook 2010.

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange 2007 SP3 has been released.
For a list of changes that are included in this update rollup, see KB2279665.

Download: Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007 SP3 (KB2279665)